Out There News investigates for Al Jazeera's People and Power why a massive Australian government programme to tackle poverty, alcoholism and violence in Aboriginal communities has provoked anger and despair among the people it is designed to help.

"I’ve always wanted to swim with sharks, but I never thought that would bring me to Kuwait. I grew up in Dubai, I’m an environmentalist and scuba diver. But sharks, in the Gulf? Nobody thought about them."

Zeina Aboul Hosn was thrilled to be invited to film the first expedition to study sharks in the Gulf. She didn't bargain for the emotional journey ahead.

Out There News is a multimedia production company and media consultancy.

From 1996-2001, Out There News created new forms of journalism on the Internet and built a world network of correspondents. From 2002-2010, it made films about the Middle East and for five years operated a bureau in Baghdad.

I'm now at Al Jazeera English, where I'm Director of Programmes. I'm leaving this site up for anyone who would like to watch Out There News's films or read about our history, but Out There News will not be making any new productions.

If you have any ideas or proposals for Al Jazeera English, please get in touch. Al Jazeera English is an amazing opportunity for alternative reporting of the world: news for the many rather than the few. We start where BBC, CNN and the other European and American-based news organisations leave off. I hope to hear from you.

My new email address is Paul.Eedle AT aljazeera.net, or you can reach me on Twitter @pauleedle.

Eight years after the 9/11 attacks, four years after the 7/7 suicide bombings in London, an entire counter-terrorism industry has grown up in Britain. The government is spending £140 million on social programmes to 'counter violent extremism'. But do policymakers really understand what they are doing?

Here is a paper I wrote for a workshop with a group of academics working on "radicalisation" - a term which policymakers use all the time but which researchers find dangerously misleading.

British media have stirred fierce arguments about the war in Afghanistan in the last six weeks, provoked by heavy casualties during Operation Panther's Claw in Helmand. Commentators have lined up to say this is a futile war run by incompetent politicians, fought by an under-sized, under-equipped army.

The mass of coverage, though, has largely missed a vital new part of the story: a total change of strategy by the US...

The UK Iraq Inquiry started work on 30 July and its chair, Sir John Chilcott, promised open hearings and transcripts on the Web. How can we make sure the Inquiry really investigates the questions that British and Iraqi people affected by the war want answered?